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Tech noob (sorry): How do I manipulate software?

I want to learn how to manipulate any software so it's like I'm the developer, but I can't get started if I don't even know the name of that craft. I want full access to every reaction on the software. So (just a silly example) if I wanted the power button to instead open a web browser and an interactive pop-up, I could do that. I want to be in total control of the software. What is that called?

No, I'm actually looking to act like a developer of sorts, as if I was the programmer that created the software to begin with. I just want to learn to access any part of the already existing software (sorry, I don't know the proper terminology, I only know "software" as of now).

Typically you need the *source code* to the software of interest, and then you can change it all day. If you have no access to the source code, then *reverse engineering* it could be an option. But it is certainly not the preferred way.

Sure, reverse engineering is an option, especially without access to the source code...but think about it...

You need to have pretty good knowledge of programming to reverse engineer software.

Even if you come across something that has already been reverse engineered, what are you going to do with it? Seems pretty obvious you don't have programming experience, so chances are you would end up with thousands or hundreds of thousands of lines of code that are more or less meaningless to you.